In My Jewellery Box: Polly Wales

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British jeweller Polly Wales was born in London and studied sculpture at university, an education that plays into her unorthodox designs. She began creating miniature, wearable sculptures, before returning to university to study jewellery design at the Royal College of Art and launching her eponymous brand after graduating.

Her experimental, artistic background combined with traditional training led her to discover the “cast not set” technique which has become her signature. She casts colourful gemstones into molten gold, creating perfectly imperfect discs and bands, each one handmade and one-of-a-kind.

In 2016 Wales relocated from the Cotswolds to LA, where she is now based with her partner, who she works with, and their two children. Here she shares the most precious pieces from her own collection.

Charm necklace

Charm necklace with spinning disc, teeth and gold figures

I wear this necklace everyday, it has my most favourite things on it. The spinning disc is one of my own - I thought it was such a nice one that I couldn’t sell it.

The teeth belong to me and my sister: when I was a child my mum, who is a dental hygienist, bought a Victorian necklace with teeth in it, and set our baby teeth into the gold settings. She gave them to me when I moved to America so that I have a reminder of her and my sister every day.

Using teeth in jewellery was quite common in Victorian times and people are fascinated by it. Our eldest daughter has got to the age where she’s started losing her teeth so I’m looking forward to collecting them and doing something similar.

The two gold figures are from my partner James - he carved them for me for Mother’s Day, and they represent our two children. He has made me some other charms which haven’t been set onto the necklace yet, such as a beautiful little boat he gave me as we set off on our journey to America. Hopefully he’ll keep carving me lovely little things to add.

Padlock bracelet

Padlock bracelet

I inherited this bracelet from my grandmother. She always wore lots of chunky gold jewellery and I used to love dressing up in her jewellery box. Her rings were so big that when she gave you a pat on the knee it was the most painful thing!

My grandmother was probably the root of my love of jewellery as she used to take me to all the jewellery shows to ogle things. I think you have to have someone in your life who’s wearing serious jewellery to get you on that path.

The bracelet came to me when she passed away about 10 years ago. It used to have charms on it that she had collected from around the world: it was the noisiest, heaviest thing you could imagine.

I asked for this piece because I’d always loved it and because it felt like something I would wear; a lot of her other jewellery was pearls and I didn’t think I’d ever be a pearl girl. That said, I don’t really wear this because I’m so worried about losing it, but it’s very precious to me.

Gold and sapphire dome ring

Gold and sapphire dome ring

Technically I’m not supposed to have this piece as it belongs to my mum, but somehow it has found its way into my jewellery box. It belonged to my mum’s godmother, who was my grandmother’s best friend. They met in Hong Kong where they both spent a lot of time, but I’m not sure if that’s where this ring was made.

It’s actually a really badly made piece of jewellery - there is a lot of flashing that hasn’t been cleaned back - but I really love it from a design perspective. I love its shape and how it’s structured. In fact, I’m working on a piece for next year’s collection that is kind of inspired by this ring. I wear it a lot.

Jo Hayes Ward earrings

Jo Hayes Ward earrings

I met Jo Hayes Ward on my first day at the Royal College of Art - she was in front of me in a queue and I thought she looked like the type of person I could be friends with so I tapped her on the shoulder and asked if she’d have lunch with me. She’s best one of my closest friends ever since.

We launched our brands around the same time and have always shared what we’ve learned and helped each other along the way. She has a very unique style and voice; what she does is truly her own. She gave me these earrings and I love the lightness in them. The way they move as they catch the light is beautiful. They were a very precious gift.

I’m not the type of jewellery designer who only wears my own pieces; it’s nice to be able to support other people whose jewellery I love. Most of the earrings I wear are a mix of other people’s that I’ve collected along the way, and these are among my favourites.

Polly Wales skull ring

Polly Wales skull ring

James made me this ring a few years ago. He had a rare window of time to explore some of his own creativity and this was the result. I love it because he made it with his own hands and you can really see him in the ring: I love the rough nature of it, the imperfections.

James is the type of person who can do and make anything: he does all of our casting, photography and 3D modelling, he built all of our workshops… we’ve been working together for just over five years but even before that he was always my sounding board.

He has always been the driving force that pushed me to make more elevated, dynamic and challenging pieces. I think having that masculine angle makes what we do more interesting.

Since he made me this ring the skulls have become part of our collection. We started experimenting with putting stones on them and suddenly they took on a whole other lease of life, opening the door into this amazing, sculptural three-dimensional world.

It has been one of the most exciting creative journeys we’ve been on and I love that it all stemmed from this ring. I’m excited to see what we can cover in stones next.